CULTURAL DIMENSION OF REMEMBERING GENOCIDE IN SREBRENICA Cover Image

Kulturna dimenzija sjećanja na genocid u Srebrenici
CULTURAL DIMENSION OF REMEMBERING GENOCIDE IN SREBRENICA

Author(s): Amila Handžić Ferović
Subject(s): Studies in violence and power, Victimology, Politics of History/Memory, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Mostaru
Keywords: genocide; cultural trauma; cultural memory; narrative discourse; collective identity;

Summary/Abstract: The fundamental idea behind this paper is the interpretation of genocide in Srebrenica using the term and meaning of “cultural trauma“. The research is based on the analysis and challenging of the visual and semantic dimensions of the work entitled Bosnian Girl by Šejla Kamerić, an artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the 1945-1995-2005 billboards by photographer Tarik Samarah. These works, originated in the post-war period, are acknowledged as the key cultural mechanisms of interpretation and understanding of the Srebrenica traumatic events. The expressions of a changed and fragmented collectivity are reflected in the framework of the past semantically shaped by different visual means and their interrelationships. The author observes the powerful symbolic potential of these works as a space for archiving knowledge and cultural dimension of remembering the genocide in Srebrenica and integrating the historical content in the framework of the contemporary and future Bosnian and Herzegovinian social context. The narratives of cultural memory, the works of artist Kamerić and photographer Samarah examine the effects of the past on the processes of re/construction of the collective identity.

  • Issue Year: XV/2020
  • Issue No: 23
  • Page Range: 153-169
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Croatian